Adventures in Grandparenting

granola bars

I found this recipe for homemade granola bars at Grammie Time. I’m always on the look out for easy and delicious snack ideas. You can see the original recipe here.

I changed it up a little. My version is below.

The almond butter I had on hand was too unruly to use. I ended up splashing myself with the almond oil while I was unsuccessfully trying to stir it back together. I decided to go with peanut butter, which was much better behaved. I didn’t find dried cherries at my grocery store, I substituted dried cranberries. I went with ½ cup of roasted almonds, put them in a sealed baggie, then I smacked it several times with a rolling pin to chop them. It worked great. Since I don’t have a food processor I was a little bit concerned about all the ingredients blending well, but they did. I just stirred it all up with a spoon and scraped it out with a spatula.

Here is my variation of her recipe.

Tasty Granola Bars from Scratch

2 ½ cups old fashioned oats

1 cup raisins

¾ cup peanut butter

¼ cup honey

2 tsp. vanilla

½ cup roasted almonds – chopped- anyway you like 🙂

3/4 cup dried cranberries

½ cup dark chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place oats on baking sheet, toast in oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place them in a medium mixing bowl. They cool quickly. Note: I wasn’t going to do this (toast the oats) but I decided to do it anyway. I think it probably gives the bars a better flavor and consistency than using the raw oats.

Cover raisins with hot water for 10 minutes, then drain.

Line an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper letting it hang over the edges slightly.

Spoon mixture into parchment lined pan. Press into pan with back of spoon or piece of wax paper (as you can tell, I didn’t want to use my fingers for this job). Let stand for at least an hour to let them set up.

Pull them out of the pan using the overhanging parchment. Cut into bars.

These turned out delicious. They even passed the fussy family test. Meaning – they ate them and liked it.

*If you want to spend a little less on the almonds buy raw ones and roast them yourself. Place raw almonds on a baking sheet in a cold oven set to 350 degree, bake for 15 minutes. Easy.